The present disclosure relates to a printer and printing system which print a glossy color image on a print matter using metal ink, and a method of manufacturing a card including a glossy color image printed using metal ink.
As such a printer, a retransfer device is widely used which sublimates or fuses ink of an ink ribbon with a thermal head, and transfers the ink to form an image on a transfer body. The printer again transfers and prints the image transferred to the transfer body onto a recording medium such as a card. Japanese Patent No. 4337582 describes such a retransfer device.
In the retransfer device, the ink ribbon includes ink layers of four colors, including: yellow (Y), magenta (N), cyan (c), and black (B), for example. The ink of each ink layer is sequentially transferred and superimposed on the transfer body to form a non-glossy color image. The formed image is again transferred on another transfer body for printing, so that the non-glossy color image is formed on the transfer body.
The ink ribbon can be an ink ribbon including an ink layer of metal ink showing metallic gloss instead of the black ink layer, or in some cases as an ink layer of the fifth color. The metal ink is frequently referred to as silver ink. There is a used technique to form a glossy color image on the surface of the transfer body, such as a card, by performing similar transfer and retransfer printing using an ink ribbon having an ink layer of metal ink.
The technique to form a glossy color image is described in Japanese Patent No. 3373714.
Hereinafter, such non-glossy and glossy color images formed on a transfer body are referred to as formed images. The object on which an image is to be formed by transfer printing is referred to as a transfer body.